City of Girls
Elizabeth Gilbert
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In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showgirls to a sexy male actor, a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager. But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand. Ultimately, though, it leads her to a new understanding of the kind of life she craves-and the kind of freedom it takes to pursue it. It will also lead to the love of her life, a love that stands out from all the rest.
Now ninety-five years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life – and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it. At some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time, she muses. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.
Before reading I saw City of Girls everywhere – on bus stops, online and plenty of mainstream reviews. So much money must have been put into marketing this book and after reading it I realised why. It is truly a good book despite being completely different to what I usually read.
A quote from Gilbert that I absolutely love is “I’ve longed to write a novel about promiscuous girls whose lives are not destroyed by their sexual desires”. City of Girls completely fits this – and is written in a way that completely captivated me. It’s a 1940’s contemporary which is written as a letter from Vivian explaining her life to a younger female (who you won’t know until much later in the book!).
Vivian Morris is a rebellious young woman who moves to NYC to find what she wants to do with life. We watch as Vivian makes poor decisions and matures over time. I love her whole story arc as she’s our narrator and fully points out her flaws and bad decisions. This means we get to see the direct repurcusions and the feelings that come with these negatives too.
I adore the world building set around the Lily Playhouse. It’s a gorgeously set theatre in NYC in the 40’s. The character of the theatre is added to by the different people who inhabit it. It had a vibe similar to Ballet Shoes (and other Shoes books by Noel Streatfeild!) in that the multiple people in and out of the Lily Playhouse help change the lives of the place and the person.
You can be captivated by Vivian’s life despite not much really happening for most of the book. But I understand that some people may not like a book that lacks much action. Overall I found that the focus was on characters and New York, but there’s a lot of emphasis on the lifestyle of fashion, dancing and boys. Whilst this is a focus, the women of this story were never vapid caricatures of women because of those interests. They felt like real women, with real women’s issues throughout.
City of Girls helped capture my attention in a sea of fantasy books (which is unusual) however I don’t think it is for everyone. For me it was a wonderful read and I adored the story of Vivian Morris.
Positives of City of Girls
- Vivian, our main character
- Captivating writing
Negatives of City of Girls
- Not much actually happens
I received City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review
